Archive for the 'Books' Category

Win A Life Time Subscription to Apex Digest

Apex DigestApex Digest of Science Fiction and Horror, a quarterly fiction magazine, is running a subscription drive for its fine publication, including the opportunity of a life time subscription. In addition to the actual subscription drive there’s also a contest to help it along the way and gather more attention to Apex Digest, which is hands-down the best Science Fiction and Horror publication of its kind.

To enter the contest simply create a free account for the Shocklines board (a horror writers and fan community, worth the visit), go to the contest thread and explain “why everyone should subscribe to the magnificent Apex Digest of Science Fiction and Horror. If you’re new to Apex and don’t know why, then just make something up.”

Prizes include:

Michele Lee will buy one random new subscriber a hardcover copy of Jennifer Pelland’s new collection Unwelcome Bodies.

Sara Harvey is offering a free copy of her book A Year and a Day for everyone who buys a lifetime subscription. Anyone buying a one-year subscription can get the book half-priced.

Matt Wallace has offered up an assortment of things… from playing an online game of Scrabble against him, to offering to having him write up the most filthy, hate-filled spiel ever composed at one person of your choice.

Steven Savile has offered to tuckerize five people into his next Stargate SG-1 novel who subscribe.

And it seems the prizes may keep growing.

Luna Maris

Steve Archer, part of the amazing musical team Ego Likeness, has written and illustrated his first children’s book - Luna Maris. The book’s story is pretty neat:

“We all have questions…even the moon. On his night off, the moon decides to journey to the earth in search of the answer to a burning question: What is the ocean for?”

The book is due to hit the world soon (not too sure as to when that is). In the meantime here’s an interview with Archer about the book, how it came together and the process of creating the illustrations -

 



2008 Eisner Award Nominees

Eisner Award The nominees for the 2008 Eisner Awards have been listed. It’s pretty damned pack with talent in all aspects of the comic industry. Included are some who are well overdue for their kudos, in particular ZMP fave Barry Windsor-Smith, who is up for a nomination into the Hall of Fame. Long overdue in our opinion.

Some other ZMP favorites nominated are:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens for Best Continuing Series and Best New Series. Also for Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Best Writer.

Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. for Best Continuing Series.

And ZMP’s all time favorite comic of all, The Goon has another strong representation…

Dwight T. Albatross’s The Goon Noir, edited by Matt Dryer for Best Humor Publication, and Eric Powell, The Goon for Best Writer/Artist—Humor… and Eric Powell, The Goon: Chinatown for Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art).

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Mr. T vs. Dracula

Mr. T vs. Dracula Comic In what can only be called an iconic pop-culture smack-down of grand proportions, Mohawk Media has announce the future release of the comic series Mr. T Versus, in which we see Mr. T doing battle with other famous characters, the first Mr. T Versus Dracula! I must admit that this smacked of an April Fools joke at first but apparently it’s all true.

The series author, Christopher Bunting says: “When I proposed these crossovers, Mohawk Media jumped at the chance and went to great lengths to make them happen. Who can blame them? Two legends … a living legend and an undead legend … going toe to toe. It doesn’t get much more exciting than that!”

Bunting continues: “Kicking – or should that be biting – off the series is Dracula. How is someone as devious as him going to handle someone as straight talking as Mr. T? And as powerful as Dracula is, he’s not met anyone as tough as Mr. T before!”

One of the greatest bad-asses ever, Mr. T himself says: “All these suckers with their fancy powers! They need a reality check, and only one guy can do that, and that’s me, Mr. T!” True that Mr. T. True that indeed. You are the only one who can set these evildoers on the path of goodness. As you so aptly pointed out “Ain’t no difference if they’re a vampire, a dinosaur, a mutant, if they’re doing wrong, then it needs Mr. T to set things straight with a swift right!”

There’s also a gallery with seek-peeks of the other upcoming releases which seem to include a battle with Marvel Comics Wolverine, Dr. Who’s greatest nemesis the Dalek, and some dork named “Dinosaur-Man”.

World War Z… Future Oscar Winer?

World War ZAin’t It Cool’s Moriarty got his hands on the script for the upcoming adaptation of Max Brook’s highly acclaimed zombie book World War Z. And by the sounds of it this film may very well be groundbreaking, like Oscar award wining groundbreaking.

Moriarty says that:

“This isn’t just a good adaptation of a difficult book… it’s a genre-defining piece of work that could well see us all arguing about whether or not a zombie movie qualifies as “Best Picture” material.”

Best Picture material? A zombie film? Really? Please don’t be teasing us dude. ‘Cause us zombie fans won’t take that too lightly. We are after all a fragile sort really.

He says about the script:

“The book is an oral history of the great zombie wars, compiled by a nameless editor as part of a government report. The book is all of his unfiltered data, since much of it was censored from the official report. That’s all the narrative that the book offered, but it was enough for JMS to use, and the result is much sadder than I would have expected. In the first five pages, we see GERRY LANE collecting stories, and the first two interviews are with a flight attendant and a border guard. Both manage to play as horror shock beats, but the way they’re told also sets the tone right away… JMS is after the human truth underneath the horror, and in a way, that makes it much, much harder to take.”

He then goes on to say:

“The world of the film reminds me of CHILDREN OF MEN on the page. Realistic but set in the near-future, in the aftermath of the zombie wars. We see a flashback to Gerry being given his assignment to write a report about “where the system worked, where it didn’t, how and in what ways the various organizational infrastructures failed.” It’s a politically shitty job because no one wants to know that they were responsible for anything that went wrong. Gerry’s hesitant because it’s going to take at least six months away from his family, just as the world is starting to right itself. He takes the job, and as he travels to his first interview, we see how hard travel has become.”

Sounds pretty swank really. Though I won’t be holding my breath for the Academy to all of the sudden take a shining to an actual horror film, let alone a zombie one. I think I would have a better chance of seeing pigs fly of their own accord before that happens.

I’ll just be in the ZMP Genetic Labs working on the development of asto-swines in the meantime.

Promowhoring: Orgy of Souls

Orgy of SoulsI have to admit that I’m a promowhore, and as such I give you all the following whoring of me:

To the left is the cover design I did for the upcoming book Orgy of Souls by Maurice Broaddus and Wrath James White, two extremely talented authors who love to give you a good scare. Just click the image to see a larger version of the cover. You can order Orgy of Souls at Apex Publishing and it’s available as a hardcover and trade paperback. The hardcover will be a limited edition (numbered 1 to 350), each signed by the authors and myself.

The story itself is one of brothers, the priesthood, male models, and twenty souls drenched in blood, powdered with cocaine and more than one kind of ecstasy. How the hell can you go wrong with that I ask? How?




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